Sean Taylor: The Legend The Game Lost Too Soon..

0:00 There was only four of us drafted in 2004 from the Redskins.

0:03 Sean and I and then two offensive lineman.

0:06 We went to the rookie symposium together.

0:10 And I remember Sean asking me in the room, "What the What is this?" I said,

0:14 "Well, it's 3 days that you teach you how to be an NFL football player.

0:18 You go through all kinds of stuff." And he said,

0:21 "I'm not I'm not doing this." I said, "What are you talking about?" He said,

0:25 "I'm going back to Miami." We had a player leave.

0:28 Uh you all are reminded that that that nobody leaves without coming through me,

0:34 getting permission to leave, no matter what, unless you're in an ambulance.

0:38 I'm in awe because I'm so green out of Utah State and I'm looking at him going,

0:44 "You just do whatever you want to do, huh?

0:45 That's I like that.

0:46 I like that." He kind of charted his own path in life.

0:52 You were going to have to earn your way with him.

0:55 He wasn't going to be somebody that just came in and immediately

0:59 um would be friends with you or as a coach,

1:05 you know, have a close relationship with you and be

1:07 willing to do whatever you want him to do.

1:09 He was just his own man.

1:11 Sean had great instincts of people.

1:14 And that Sean did not have the ability in to really

1:17 turn the cheek much in his life on anything.

1:20 And that he wanted you to be honest

1:22 with him at all times and one one dishonest comment,

1:27 one thing from body language, he was great with that, too, would turn him off.

1:33 Sean Taylor soured quickly on the media thanks to a teammate's [music] prank.

1:38 I remember LaVar Arrington coming from behind

1:41 and hitting him with a shaving [music] cream pie.

1:44 AND WHAT HAPPENED?

1:47 [screaming] [laughter] ROOKIE!

1:50 YEAH!

1:53 THE MENTHOL SHAVING CREAM [music] PIE burned Taylor's

1:55 eyes as well as Bridges with the local press.

1:59 I really felt like that was it.

2:03 He's like, "Who are you guys to laugh at me?" From that moment,

2:06 the media could only be a detriment.

2:09 They would never get to know the real me,

2:11 so why put up this fake facade and give you some BS

2:13 quotes [music] when you know I don't want to talk to you,

2:15 and I know I don't want to talk to you,

2:17 and I what you get out of me isn't really even going to help you do your job.

2:20 So, eff it.

2:22 How would you grade day one?

2:25 Day one.

2:27 Negotiations for Taylor's rookie contract were tense.

2:31 While his agent changed three times, his stance with the media did not.

2:37 As Taylor remained silent, the criticism grew louder.

2:41 You know, he leave the rookie symposium,

2:43 and you had the the the contract issues and everything else

2:47 that was going on, and this is all before he played a down.

2:50 It was so much negative press behind him that, you know,

2:54 I think he kind of went into a shell.

2:59 Taylor kept his time in front of cameras to game days.

3:03 In his preseason debut, he ended his first series with an interception.

3:07 [music] First game, NFL, he was best player on the field, and you could see it.

3:16 [music] There is Sean Taylor.

3:19 We talked about this rookie and the splash he's already made.

3:24 I said, "All right, we got ourselves a a Hall of Fame Pro Bowl

3:27 player here." That's his fourth takeaway in two

3:31 and a quarter games for the Redskins.

3:33 Everybody could see it.

3:35 Even though our list of top-flight athletes,

3:37 it was something different about him, and it separated him from the rest of us.

3:42 We were playing against Cincinnati.

3:44 [clears throat] We talked about this play all week, and we were like,

3:47 "You know, Sean, you're going to go out there under Chad Johnson,

3:49 make him throw it high,

3:50 and I'm also going to like come over the top and like be the hero.

3:55 [music] And he jumps up and picks it off.

4:00 [music] You drew it up to be a good play.

4:02 He made it a great play.

4:03 He made it [music] a turnover.

4:05 He made it something mere mortals can't do.

4:09 God made certain people to play football, [music] for sure.

4:12 He was one of them.

4:16 But Taylor was not made to be away from home for long.

4:20 He would always want to win because I think they had the day off on Monday,

4:23 and if you win, you'd get Tuesday off.

4:26 So, he knew Sunday night or whatever, out of there.

4:30 And try to catch a flight back Tuesday night.

4:33 So, he'd go home even if it was for a day.

4:35 You never know like you'll he'll be gone

4:36 and next thing you know like, "Who is that?

4:38 Is he here?

4:39 Are you here?" He's like, "Oh, yeah,

4:40 it's me." Even the roots Taylor put down in Washington had Miami ties.

4:46 Until he found a home, he stayed with college teammate Clinton Portis.

4:51 And he continued courting Hurricane soccer player Jackie Garcia.

4:55 When Jackie was playing in the area, he was going to see it.

4:59 One night he had even drove to Virginia Tech or something,

5:03 or maybe they played Virginia like somewhere crazy.

5:06 He would come and hang out at night,

5:07 but then we had like curfew and all that stuff.

5:09 So, you can't you can't really hang out past a certain time.

5:12 So, then if I had to I think we had to be up like at 7:00 or something,

5:15 he would come back like at 5:00 cuz he's like,

5:17 "Oh, well, 5:00 it's not really like you're breaking the rule.

5:19 Like, you can just be up early, you know?" It's like, "So,

5:22 I would wake up really early and we would hang out you know,

5:24 in the lobby downstairs.

5:26 He would be at 8:00 workout group and lead the workout group like,

5:31 "I know he he didn't get no sleep.

5:33 And now you're back in time for 8:00 workouts." And you know,

5:37 he'd be the first one across the line and then you know,

5:40 you'll find out later that day well,

5:42 he worked out at 9:00 and he worked out with the 10:00 group.

5:45 So, you're like, "What is he doing?" and he

5:47 probably get three workouts in when I couldn't survive one.

5:54 [music] But on a Thursday in October, Taylor missed team workouts.

5:58 He had been arrested the night before after

6:00 a teammate's birthday party on suspicion of drunk driving.

6:07 How much have you had to drink?

6:09 Two drinks.

6:10 Just one drink?

6:11 On the tape, Taylor tells the officer he's only had one glass of champagne

6:15 but refuses to take a breathalyzer

6:17 so the officer administers several sobriety tests.

6:20 Taylor is quizzed about the date and time and told to touch the tip of a pencil.

6:25 Taylor was released from custody in time

6:27 to attend practice but he chose to remain home.

6:31 I get on the phone with Sean [music] like, what you doing?

6:33 Like, come to the facility.

6:35 He was like, man, I'm not coming over there.

6:37 You know, like the media over there.

6:40 I'd deal with it tomorrow.

6:41 Instead of coming to the facility, he go home and cook a steak and, you know,

6:44 want to play Madden and I'm just sitting here like, man, this this dude crazy.

6:49 The judge dismissed the drunk driving charge.

6:52 Taylor, who rarely talks to the media, broke his silence briefly.

6:55 I feel good, man.

6:56 I'm glad to be back.

6:58 Glad to be walking breathing smiling and talking.

7:01 That whole first year, I think was pretty traumatic really and I was

7:05 kind of looking at it as a coach going,

7:08 man, we got a great player but this guy he's going to be hard to handle.

7:12 [laughter] Up next.

7:15 When my daughter [music] was born,

7:16 she didn't speak any English until she was two and a half.

7:20 They communicated through broken Spanish.

7:23 He was obsessed with her.

7:29 In the spring of 2005, the Redskins held voluntary workouts.

7:34 Sean Taylor remained in Miami.

7:37 Redskins OTAs are a big deal and it was just like, where is he?

7:41 Where is he?

7:41 But, I never got the sense that Greg was freaked out about it.

7:46 We had little bitty safeguards going on where

7:49 we were checking in with each other.

7:51 No one else knew.

7:52 I could trust him.

7:53 He could trust me.

7:54 He was spending time with his grandmother.

7:58 While in Miami, news broke that Taylor was involved

8:01 in an assault [music] concerning two ATVs that were stolen from him.

8:07 I was with him the day that he had to turn himself in.

8:09 I think it scared him to death.

8:11 [clears throat] You know, scared him to death.

8:17 [music] Some guys from the neighborhood took his ATVs.

8:22 He knew who they were.

8:23 People who were from the neighborhood were calling him saying these guys

8:26 have your ATVs and they're riding up and down the streets.

8:29 He called the police.

8:30 That was the first thing he did.

8:31 So, after two or three days of getting phone calls

8:34 of these kids out here doing pop wheelies and clowning,

8:37 he made a decision to go get his ATVs.

8:40 Taylor was accused of waving a gun

8:42 and hitting one of the thieves during the altercation.

8:46 [music]

8:46 Just hours later, Taylor himself was confronted.

8:51 [music]

8:51 These guys came back, you know, with some AK-47s.

8:54 And if you're familiar with an AK-47, I mean, they call it a chopper.

9:00 [music] And it would just chop everything in the way.

9:02 He said the bullets were just cutting through the house.

9:05 And [music] he had to barefoot jump the fence and take off.

9:10 While Taylor was charged with assault,

9:12 no one else involved in the incident was ever arrested.

9:16 At training camp, Taylor declined to give his version of events to reporters.

9:23 He was never one of those guys to be like, "What you reporting about me?

9:26 All the stories you hear are wrong.

9:28 Here is what really happened." And so, from the outside world,

9:31 when you hear those things, you perceive them as the truth.

9:34 And then the The people have is that okay,

9:38 we hear these things about him living recklessly off the field

9:42 and we believe them because we watch him play football.

9:46 And when he plays football, he's reckless.

9:47 And so, people thought that was who he was, but it wasn't.

9:51 Even for his teammates, knowing what stories to believe about Taylor

9:55 could be difficult unless witnessed in person.

9:59 When I first got here in '05,

10:00 I used to see this BMW sitting in the parking lot all the time.

10:03 And I remember asking Porter, I'm like, "Whose car is that?" He like,

10:05 "Oh, that's Sean's." And he giggled about it.

10:08 And someone like, "Why is this car here every day?" And he like, "Oh, Sean, man,

10:12 he he normally runs home." So, you know,

10:14 I'm sitting here like, "What?" And then one day I caught him.

10:17 I'm leaving out late and I see him just running down the street.

10:21 Those are things that now you look back

10:23 at when we played the game, never got tired.

10:25 That's why, [clears throat] cuz he put in the work

10:27 behind closed doors that a lot of guys don't do.

10:29 We'd be up there in the office and he'd go,

10:31 "Look at that." And it'd be Sean before practice.

10:34 Running his 100-yard sprinters on the field.

10:37 Now, the coach isn't telling him to do that.

10:39 Just in his mind, that was something he felt like he should do.

10:45 2005 season, we had so much fun.

10:49 Before the Eagles game, I was just like,

10:52 I was so pumped up, you know, I wanted to do something different.

10:56 We're on a national stage and I'm just like,

10:58 "Man, [music] come on, Sean, like, let's do something." Yeah,

11:03 we're getting ready to play a game and Sean

11:05 and Plaxico [music] and I got striped socks on.

11:08 What what what are you doing?

11:10 These are the two guys who expressed their individuality through their wardrobe.

11:16 It did, quite frankly, piss me off.

11:19 I confronted him about it.

11:21 Uh and he goes out the next week and took 40,

11:23 50 pieces of tape and just taped up his face mask, which he can't do.

11:28 Uh I told the equipment manager, "Take the face mask off.

11:31 Get it off before he goes out there, he gets another fine.

11:34 And so they put it in my locker and then I'll be damned if he didn't go

11:37 ahead and tape up the one they put

11:39 on anyway and he still went ahead and got fined.

11:41 What a big guy for safety.

11:43 He can cover and hold and he hit.

11:47 Oh my!

11:48 What a display!

11:50 I think he loved that part of it, but it was more than just a big head.

11:53 He had unusual instincts for where the ball was going to be.

11:59 [music] I remember we had Philadelphia.

12:00 We had to win the game to get in the playoffs

12:02 and all of a sudden it's late in the game, there goes the ball flying around.

12:06 Who comes up with it?

12:07 Sean.

12:07 It's loose on the ground.

12:10 Two men pile up for it.

12:12 Picked up by the Redskins.

12:13 Sean takes it up to the 30.

12:15 He had a knack for just big play.

12:18 Big time save for a touchdown Redskins.

12:21 Every game he'd do something to let you know that he

12:24 was wasn't from this planet and all of us were.

12:27 Feel great being in Florida.

12:28 Can't get no better.

12:32 [screaming and groaning] It's not a big game, it's just a game.

12:36 [music] And I'm the Williams and here at the line of scrimmage and taken down.

12:42 Fumble on the play.

12:42 The Redskins say they've got it.

12:45 Sean Taylor of Washington with it.

12:48 Sean Taylor has got it and he's off to the races again.

12:53 Sean Taylor, he does it again.

12:55 How about that?

12:56 That was probably one of the best games that you see

12:59 the play maker in him and you see the nastiness in him.

13:03 Sean Taylor and Michael Pittman squaring off.

13:07 What you doing?

13:08 Most of it.

13:09 Four of us.

13:09 Been in my face.

13:11 And he's gone.

13:13 And you're gone.

13:14 You're gone.

13:15 I remember arguing, you know, we in the ref's face.

13:19 No, he he didn't do it and you know, and we go back and watch film and you

13:25 just see big as day this spit glob come out.

13:29 The word we got is he spit in Pittman's face.

13:33 He did it.

13:35 I mean what I mean what else you want me to say?

13:42 Taylor let his emotions get the better of him.

13:45 On the field and in the delivery room.

13:49 Sean just said, "I want everybody out.

13:51 Everybody out." Sean, what are you talking about?

13:54 "I want everybody out." So he pushes everybody out the door.

13:57 Like, "Man, what's wrong with Sean?" [clears throat] Small.

14:03 Little baby.

14:04 She'll grow.

14:04 Yeah, she will.

14:05 He was very very protective of her.

14:09 Didn't want you to touch her, kiss her.

14:10 You had to have blankets on.

14:12 I used to tell him, "Boy, I have about two children.

14:14 Get out of my face." Here we go.

14:16 Come on, a nice nice print for Daddy and Mommy.

14:18 Come on.

14:19 He had told me that he was going to put

14:20 the footprint prints of the baby on his shirt.

14:23 How does that ink print stuff come off?

14:26 So I said, "Did you put the footprint prints of the baby on your shirt?"

14:29 He lifts up his shirt and there's the two footprint prints on his chest.

14:32 This is your official I'm a Dad shirt.

14:34 Daddy's little girl.

14:35 Thank you, Alex.

14:37 That was a proud moment cuz he was happy and he was able to walk away and say,

14:41 "I have something to do now.

14:42 I have to take care of this kid and I have

14:43 a reason to do what's right." That's That's what I'm talking about.

14:48 Just a month after his daughter was born,

14:50 Taylor agreed to a plea deal

14:52 that dismissed the felony assault charges against him.

14:55 He received 18 months probation.

14:59 I think it's in my best interest for my family,

15:01 for my friends, for me, for my team.

15:03 [clears throat] After that he grew up.

15:05 A lot of things that he did in his younger years, he cut out.

15:08 Like going out, you know, hanging with certain people and doing certain things.

15:13 After that event, he just stuck to his family, his daughter, and and football.

15:20 It changed.

15:21 That that thing clicked and the little thing

15:24 that he and I had from a family standpoint,

15:27 his grandmother's standpoint, and now all of a sudden being a father,

15:30 those things kind of clicked into him and you we all

15:33 started to see a little bit calmer Sean outside the white lines.

15:40 Between the white lines, Taylor was thriving.

15:44 [music] In [music] 2006, he earned his first trip to the Pro

15:54 Bowl and delivered the hit heard round the world.

16:09 [screaming] That pretty much translates in every language, doesn't it?

16:14 Yes, it does.

16:15 He wanted to buy a house that everyone can kind of come together,

16:19 you know, all his siblings.

16:22 Our friend from high school was his realtor and when he walked into the house,

16:26 he stood in the kitchen, he's like, I can just picture myself and like all

16:29 my family in front of me and me cooking for them.

16:32 So, it was like the family house.

16:34 Everybody can come there and feel comfortable.

16:36 Whenever I was around all of them, it just made me feel whole.

16:41 By 2007, Sean Taylor had accomplished his goal of using

16:46 football to reunite his mother's side of the family.

16:49 After the birth of baby Jackie,

16:51 he considered moving to Virginia full-time with his fiance and daughter.

16:57 Taylor's coaches also [music] had a move in mind for him,

17:00 from strong to free safety.

17:02 It took a while for me to convince [music] him to line up that deep,

17:06 but the time and distance that he could cover was amazing.

17:11 [music] He was everywhere.

17:17 Like, it didn't matter.

17:18 Short, long, medium, run, pass, he was there.

17:25 [music] You would think it was 11 Sean Taylors, and it was only one.

17:30 You know what?

17:31 He intercepted Brett Favre, had two that day, he dropped three other ones.

17:36 He should have had five that day.

17:43 Brett was looking him off to the last

17:45 moment and slinging it to the next sideline.

17:47 Sean would turn around and go bee-line.

17:50 And watch Sean Taylor as Brett Favre turned that one loose.

17:54 It looked like it was going to be [music] an easy completion,

17:57 and probably a touchdown.

18:05 We weren't even halfway through the year, he had five interceptions already.

18:10 But the best stretch of Taylor's career would come to an abrupt end.

18:22 Sean Taylor limping off the field.

18:24 He's got something going on.

18:25 He's not healthy at this stage of the season right now.

18:32 The same day as his injury, Taylor's [music] mother reported an attempted

18:35 burglary at the family's Miami home.

18:39 I was in the training room, he was in the training room.

18:41 He's like, "Hey, somebody tried to break

18:42 into my house." I'm like, "Damn." You know?

18:45 And he's like, "Man, they lucky I wasn't there." And he's like,

18:48 "Man, my kid and my you know, my girl be there, man.

18:50 I you know, I don't want them you know,

18:51 somebody's doing this to me." Sean Taylor's home has been broken into.

18:55 Someone pried open a window, rifled through his drawers,

18:59 and tried to get into his safe in his bedroom.

19:02 We weren't allowed to go back to the house.

19:05 I mean, if somebody breaks into your house, you don't know what happened.

19:08 It's almost like your privacy's been invaded,

19:11 so I think the best thing to do is not go back.

19:14 While his teammates traveled to Tampa,

19:17 an injured Taylor flew to Miami to check on his home and family.

19:21 We woke up that day and we went on a bike ride and then that night we

19:26 all went back and I cooked and we spoke

19:29 about like that we were going to, you know,

19:31 move to Virginia and we were going to start our, he called it our niche,

19:35 there and um you know,

19:39 he just it was like the sense of like peace inside of him, you know,

19:42 I don't it was just like I it was I

19:45 remember like going to sleep that night and being like,

19:48 God, like if it could just be like this every day,

19:50 like wow, you know, like my life is going to be amazing.

19:56 Some jolting news off the field on Monday.

19:58 Redskins safety Sean Taylor in critical condition after he

20:01 was shot in his Florida home early Monday morning.

20:04 Police officers were dispatched to Taylor's Miami area home at 1:45 a.m.

20:08 and Taylor was later airlifted to a local hospital.

20:11 The first thing I was thinking is, where is he?

20:13 Why would he be shot?

20:14 He's not even supposed to be here.

20:15 Like I didn't even know he was in town cuz he really

20:17 didn't tell too much of us that he was coming that weekend.

20:19 He was home with his girlfriend, Jackie Garcia, and their 18-month-old daughter.

20:26 They heard noise in the living room, were awakened, got up.

20:30 Sean locked the bedroom door,

20:33 went under his bed for a small machete that he keeps under there.

20:36 By the time he got to the bedroom door,

20:38 it was burst open and two shots were fired.

20:41 One hit him in the upper leg and one hit the wall.

20:44 He was bleeding profusely from the leg.

20:46 Apparently, his femoral artery was hit and he was bleeding out.

20:50 We inside the room, he was laying there.

20:53 They had some machines hooked up.

20:55 I was holding his hand.

20:56 I was talking to him.

20:57 You know, I just say, it's going to be okay.

20:59 Just you got to fight.

21:00 I say, regardless of what, you understand?

21:02 It's going to be a struggle.

21:03 You have to fight, you know, you remember hard work, you know,

21:05 you got to push through After a day-long stream of grave news,

21:09 a glimmer of hope came Monday night from the bedside vigil for Sean Taylor.

21:14 The doctor asked him to move his eyes, he responded,

21:16 and he also asked him to squeeze his hands, and he responded.

21:19 Although, you know, there were reports saying that, you know,

21:22 he was doing better, it didn't look good at all.

21:25 Um they were giving him a blood transfusion,

21:28 and and around the bed they had like sheets,

21:32 and as as as as the um as the blood,

21:45 you know, they put it in, it was just coming coming out.

21:49 I remember going back to the room and thinking about if we make

21:53 it through the night that everything going to be okay, and I dozed off.

21:58 And I I I woke up to banging on the door.

22:05 It was like boom boom [music] boom boom boom.

22:07 And I remember opening my eyes, and I looked at the window.

22:12 [music] And when I looked at the window, it was still dark out.

22:15 And I banged on the door, and uh I could hear him start crying immediately,

22:20 and I was I he opened the door, I was in tears, and and it was terrible.

22:29 [music] Couldn't sleep.

22:29 I was hoping that that next call would be, "He's all right." [music]

22:34 And the next call was [music] [music]

22:50 The next call was the worst call I probably had in my life [music] today.

23:04 [music] It was the doctor, Pete and I.

23:07 He [music] said if the bullet would have went in a eighth of an inch up,

23:11 down, left, or right, it would have been one more in a flesh wound.

23:18 And then he said, "Sean was dead when he got here."

23:22 And he said that he never seen a man fight for his life [music]

23:27 as hard as he did.